Concurrent Versioning for Word - something like CVS

[rick_deckard]

Does anyone know if there is a reasonably priced concurrent versioning
system similar to CVS that works with Word documents. For those who
don't know CVS, basically the way it works is as follows

- you have a central repository

- when someone wants to work on a doc, s/he checks it out

- when done, that person "commits" the doc to the repository.

- if, in the meantime, someone has changed the same part of the same
document, CVS flags a conflict and that must be resolved manually.

- if two people have changed different parts of the document, CVS just
merges those changes without conflict and without intervention.

Unfortunately, CVS works only with files that are in plain text.

 

[Jezebel]

There are quite a few, mostly very expensive, although I've not seen one
that deals with changes to parts of documents, only to documents as a whole.
Do a Google on something like 'document management systems'.

It is actually very difficult (in a fundamental, conceptual sense) to track
the 'parts' of a Word document. Unlike source code, a Word document is
inherently unstable as a definitive source. The really tightly controlled
systems use a straight database, with chunks of Word document as data
elements: you only get a complete document on output. The logic is control
system to document, rather than vice versa.

 

[Guest]

Microsoft's Visual Source Safe (VSS) works.

 

[rick_deckard]

It is actually very difficult (in a fundamental, conceptual sense) to track

the 'parts' of a Word document.

True, but paradoxical since of course, that also makes it harder to
track Word documents without software. CVS is so great for code.


Tom